AWARD INTERPRETATIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 26 November 1938, Page 9

AWARD INTERPRETATIONS

WATERSIDE WORKERS’ DISPUTES

COURT MEMORANDUM Special reference to the feet that the Court had been asked to decide 28 disputes of minor nature dealing with waterfront problems arising from an award that had been issued only a year ago, is made in a memorandum to Die judgment on those disputes just issued by the Court of Arbitration. "It is a matter for comment," the memorandum states, “that the foregoing long list of interpretations has arisen in connection with an award made as recently as 30th November, 1937, the terms of which had been agreed upon in Conciliation Council. The Aot enjoins the Court to set out in clear terms the provisions of an award, but the Court is naturally reluctant to alter terms on which the parties themselves have agreed in connection with matters on which they must be the most conversant.

“Thus it would appear that an initial responsibility rests on the parties to make reasonably certain that the language they have employed expresses

their mutual intentions. Greater appre- j ciatioii of that responsibility would pro-j bably result in fewer applications to the; Court to interpret provisions really framed by the parties themselves.” I